Jimenez

Margaret Jimenez

Literary Analysis “Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes are Pierced”

Catherine Barnett

Prejudice is defined as “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without

knowledge, thought or reason.” That pretty much sums up how I’ve felt about poetry most of

my life. I’ve never really understood it. I always found it complex and confusing and hated

being forced to write it. To be honest, sometimes what I read or heard sounded like a bunch of

gibberish, almost as if someone threw a bunch of Scrabble pieces in the air and just wrote down

whatever landed. I haven’t disliked all poetry but I think my perception of it was tainted by the

stereotype of beatniks reading a stanza and then beating a drum. What was that all about?

Catherine Barnett, on the other hand, came to our class and read from her book, Into

Perfect Spheres Such Holes are Pierced. This book is a series of short but profound poems

written during a particularly painful time in the author’s life. As she recited her poetry in her

soft-spoken manner, each line evoked for me a deep and profound sentiment. It was as though I

could feel her pain, her grief, her deeply wrought emotion in each line, word and stanza. This

was most apparent in the first lines of her poem, “Living Room Altar”.

Except for the shirt pulled from the ocean,

Except for her hands, which keep folding the shirt

Except for her body, which once held their bodies,

My sister wants everything back now –

The experience of grief, still fresh for me after having lost my mother almost three years ago,

drew me to her words and I felt an overwhelming sensation of camaraderie and understanding

that I’ve never felt towards poetic writing before.

1

Jimenez

Catherine’s poetry, as she described it, sometimes contains the “unsay-able”. Her

method of writing is to write and write and then to cull. Through this process of writing she

eventually reaches a place of understanding within herself that says, “This is what I want to say

to the reader”, even if the words are not transparent and or easily discernible to everyone.

In my first attempt at poetry I decided to write an elegy. I had not attempted to deal with

my feelings about my mother’s passing in any form prior to that. I had not wanted to discuss it,

write about it or even think about it too much for fear of the pain that would follow. Catherine’s

writings inspired me to confront my grief through the power of the written word. I found that

expressing my sentiments in this manner has allowed a healing process in my own life as well as

whetted my appetite for poetry, something I never imagined would happen. What follows is an

example of my catharsis from stanzas of my poem, “Death & Grief”,

So her death rips through your soul It makes a hole too big to repairAnd causes a pain so great there are no words to describe itLike a tsunami, it wants to swallow you up

 Hers is a loss that can never be replacedNo more sympathy when I hear of the death of a loved oneIt is now deep, profound empathy

I feel your painI bear your griefI know your fearsBecause I have walked that road

What I learned from this first real exposure to poetry in my life was that it spoke to me.

It touched me to the deepest core of my being. It moved me and made me see poetry in a whole

new light. Her words whet my appetite for poetry. I read and re-read her book completely

seeking to understand more of this genre of writing that was so foreign to me. I may never

2

Jimenez

develop a passion for poetry that I see in so many writers but at the very least, I’ll learn to

respect it as a powerful form of writing. In the process I know I’ll gain a new and profound

appreciation for it that I hope will last me a lifetime.

3